Fruitless

Several cultivars of olive trees do not produce olives! These trees make them ideal candidates to plant along walkways, where you don’t want the fruit staining stonework or having someone slip on the proverbial “olive peel.” No messy olives to sweep up.

Allergies

Non-fruiting (fruitless) olive trees produce less pollen. In fact, the Swan Hill cultivar produces only 1% of most olive trees’ typical pollen output, vastly reducing typical allergic reactions.

Style

Olive trees make excellent focal points and accents to the Mediterranean-style landscape garden. We offer both single- and multi-trunked trees to match your landscaping needs. In landscape design they work well flanking entryways, driveways, pathways, patios, and pools. They also make ideal focal interest specimens in a courtyard.

Light

Olive trees do best with 8 hours of bright sunlight. While it’s possible to grow them quite successfully in containers outdoors, they will rarely be as healthy indoors in a container. When planted for indoor use, provide lots of direct sunlight.

Soil

Olive trees prefer well-drained soil and grow well even in nutritionally poor soil. They thrive in hot and rocky locations. While new plantings will do best with regular water (and container plantings will require even more water), established trees are fairly drought tolerant and only require water occasionally.

Temperature

Although olive trees do well with both higher heat and cold, winter temperatures, various cultivars react with greater (or lesser) tolerance to heat or cold. Most are hardy down to 20 or 30°F. Ask us which cultivars may be best for your growing conditions.

Growth

Olive trees vary in growth rate over time. Some are slow; others are moderate or even vigorous in their rate of growth. Left unattended, some cultivars may grow to 30 feet or more. But they respond well to pruning, if you wish to maintain them at a specific size. Most flower in spring or summer, even if they are not fruit producing. The exception is Little Ollie, a dwarf cultivars that remains small and shrub-like, producing no blooms.

Size

Tree size may vary widely depending upon how much it’s been pruned historically in an established olive tree. Many are maintained at  20 (+/-) feet to achieve a desired visual effect. Some cultivars are characterized by upright branches and others by more pendulous or “weeping” branch style. Also, some trees have dense canopies, as wide as the tree is tall. Others thrive by being used in a hedge or shrub formation with branches intertwined with its neighbors’.

Ancient olive trees are characterized by their gnarled, dense and thick trunk girth. Their size gives an appearance of stocky solidity. Olive trees are known for living not only for hundreds of years, but even thousands, in parts of the Mediterranean and Middle East. Olive wood is also prized for its dense grain and beautiful color.